Selecting an appropriate report topic is a crucial step that will impact on the quality of your Scholarship report. The following questions and considerations are designed to help you to select a suitable topic.
How to choose a report topic
Step 1
Download the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Performance Standard. This standard is used to assess reports from the curriculum areas of Physical Education, Health and Home Economics.
Download the Performance Standard [DOC, 396 KB]
Step 2
Read the standard thoroughly and talk to your teacher about the expectations of the Scholarship standard.
Step 3
Access the Scholarship Health and Physical Education Resources. Under exam materials (bottom of the page) you will find exemplars and assessment reports from previous years.
Scholarship Health and Physical Education Resources
Step 4
After reading the exemplars, read the Assessment Reports. These reports show what students who achieve Scholarship can do, and some indication of why some students are not awarded Scholarship, despite writing a comprehensive report.
Step 5
Read the current Scholarship Assessment Specifications, consult with your teacher, and decide whether you wish to proceed with an NZ Scholarship entry.
Step 6
Select your topic
- Identify an area of interest that intrigues you and provokes your curiosity.
- Consider several possible topics before committing to your final report focus.
- Consider the following to help you refine your topic:
- does your topic meaningfully link to the HPE Curriculum at Level
- are there theories and concepts that you can draw upon related to your topic?
- does the topic have more than one perspective associated to it?
- can an argument be created?
- can you connect the topic with personal experiences?
- how does the topic connect with the underlying concepts of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum?
- can you connect socio-cultural and biophysical concepts within your topic?
- does your topic allow you to challenge assumptions and taken-for-granted points of view?
- how does your topic relate to your own learning?
- Don't just select a topic that has been successful in the past, go for a topic that you're interested in.
Step 7
Construct a plan for your report based on your selected topic. Discuss this with your teacher.
Although the report you produce must be your own work, and your teacher will need to see it at various milestones, you are expected to seek guidance from your teacher.
They cannot tell you what you should do, or the arguments you should make, but they can ask you questions that will make you think, and help you bring your report to Scholarship level.